General
We had a few days of glorious, sunny weather at the beginning of the month before the rains returned on the 6th. We then had cold, overcast, hazy days with wet nights and mornings – most uncharacteristic for this time of year – before the month ended with a few days of sunshine. The cold, drizzly, weather is very bad on the roads, they never get a chance to dry out and vehicle traffic, especially from balloon flights, causes immense damage. On top of this we had two exceptionally heavy storms, flooding large sections of the Triangle and destroying the work we were doing near Little Governors. This, at a time we can least afford the cost of upkeep.
We have been working with a fundraiser in the United States, Brian Parham, and have submitted proposals for two smallish grants. In preparing for these grant applications we were asked to submit our Vision and Mission statements. It was interesting to dig them out of the archives and I thought we should post them here as a reminder. They seem as appropriate today as they did nearly 20 years ago:
OUR VISION
To be a leading world class public/private partnership in wildlife management and conservation and
create a partnership of trust and respect with our Maasai Community, Local Authorities and Tourists.
OUR MISSION STATEMENT
Working with local leaders, communities, and tourism partners, the Mara Conservancy uses effective and efficient management methods that enhance the economic value of conservation to better protect the Mara Triangle and its surrounding ecosystem.
We see the Mara Triangle as an integral part of the Greater Mara Ecosystem, which deserves a healthy environment that benefits both people and wildlife.
The Mara Conservancy is committed to helping local communities adopt a sustainable approach to
conservation by creating a management model that is transparent, accountable and values wildlife.
We believe in responsible tourism, sustainable development, good guiding practices, and strive for an
environment that is free from the threats of poaching. This is achieved by fostering good working
relationships with local communities and tourism stakeholders, recognizing the worth of an appreciated workforce, and understanding the urgent need to protect our wildlife.
We want to ensure that the Maasai Mara remains an important ecosystem for wildlife, tourism, local communities and for Kenya.
The Cabinet Secretary for Tourism and Wildlife launched the Mara ecosystem management plan on the 19th at the Masai Mara Wildlife Conservancies Association (MMWCA) offices in Aitong. There were pointed references regarding the lack of a formalised plan for the Reserve.
We are working on a proposal for a conservation area on Olorien Group Ranch, the land has been sub-divided in to 36 acre parcels. We are looking at establishing an area of approximately 10,000 acres. The proposal is that landowners can live on their land, keep livestock but take down fences, stop all agriculture and felling of trees.
Research
Ms Jana Woerner returned to continue with the Hyena Research Project after an absence of nearly a year.
Collaboration Agreement
We have been severely hampered by a lack of funding. Essentially, all but the most important projects have been put on hold since October 2020.
COVID-19
We are witnessing a slight increase in the number of positive cases being recorded, amid concerns about variant strains being more virulent and possibly resistant to some of the vaccines (to date 105,973 people have tested positive in Kenya, from 1,298,838 tests; 1,856 people have died). Tanzania are now acknowledging that Covid is a real threat, several high level government officers have died and Kenya has now instituted new control measures on visitors from Tanzania. Kenya is expecting the vaccine at the beginning of March but the United States and countries in Europe are already vaccinating millions of people. This may make people more willing to travel. However, we don’t anticipate any significant increase in tourist travel this year.
Tourism
The Triangle was quite busy over the weekends, with locals and a few non-residents. It was then empty during the week.
The Tourism Research Institute and Magical Kenya prepared a paper that showed the number of overseas visitors to Kenya dropped by 72% in the period January to October last year (471,000 compared to 1,718,000 during the same period in 2019 – 390,000, or 82% of the visitors arrived in the first three months). Seventy percent of the visitors were either visiting family and friends or were on business – only 20% were tourists). The top five source markets were: Uganda, the United States, Tanzania, United Kingdom and India. Figure 1 below clearly shows the impact from Covid-19 (Source: Tourism Research Institute and Magical Kenya).
It is estimated that Kenya lost Ksh 110 billion (US$ 1 billion at the current rate of exchange) in direct international tourism revenue as a result of the pandemic in the period January to October.
Staff
We had a slight issue with the staff welfare, with a faction wanting to split the welfare between Conservancy and County employees – there was obviously a degree of incitement but we managed to resolve most of the issues on the 14th.
Dogs
We will retire Sero, one of our tracker dogs who now 10 years old. He has been suffering from chemical induced liver damage – the second old dog to show these symptoms. It would appear that prolonged use of Trypacide, a prophylactic against trypanosomiasis that we administer quarterly, damages the liver. We have experienced similar, but more severe damage, with prolonged use of other trypanocides, such as Samorin, in cattle.
We loaned Morani, another of our dogs to Finlays, to mate with one of theirs. We hope to be able to select a puppy for training.
Wildlife
Wildlife viewing was extremely difficult because of the exceptionally tall grass and wet conditions, making off-road driving all but impossible. One positive was that the smaller predators came out onto the roads more. We had excellent serval cat sightings, jackals were numerous and we managed to see some of the rarer animals such as aardwolf, caracal and the African wildcat.
A car ran over a serval cat on the 13th, this is the second serval cat killed by speeding vehicles this year alone. But it is not servals alone, we have seen a jackal, Thompson’s gazelle, grey kestrel and a puff adder killed in the past month as well.
Dr Limo removed an arrow from a wounded zebra near Oloololo and then a piece of plastic pipe from a warthog’s foot at Kichwa on the 15th. There is a marked increase in the number of animals injured along the escarpment, partly because so many animals have gone up there to follow the better drained soils and shorter grass, partly because young men are trying out their skills.
Dr Limo treated a giraffe on the 20th, sadly the animal died during treatment.
A leopard killed a jackal and stored it in a tree on the 25th.
Security
February is the first month in 17 years in which we have not arrested a single poacher. This was mainly as a result of concentrating our efforts in the Triangle, with a few joint patrols in the Main Reserve – we found no signs of poaching.
We received a report from one of the camps in the. Main Mara that three people were seen near the Mara/Talek junction on the 11th. Our teams responded and were later joined by a team from Musiara. They came across two trucks siphoning fuel from one to the other quite close to Mara Ngenche camp. It later transpired that the three people who had been seen most probably came from those same trucks – the dogs followed the tracks for nearly a kilometer to within a hundred meters of the trucks. What were those people doing? Collecting stolen property, collecting fuel that had been stashed?
Revenue and Accounts
Our revenue for January was well down on December and it looks like this month will be as bad. February is when there is normally a small peak, as people escape the northern winter. Our revenue was only 22% of the collection in the corresponding month last year, a time when Covid-19 was just becoming known. How things have changed in one year - it is a miracle that we have managed to keep thing going as well as we have.
We are in the final stages of negotiating a US$ 500,000 loan with Conservation International (CI) and should be able to access these funds in April or May. In the meantime we have sufficient funds to see us through to June but will have to make further cuts in expenditure – as staff and their associated costs account for nearly 70%, we will probably have to send staff home for extended periods.
Our income for the first seven month’s stands at Ksh 67,762,430, against Ksh 231,620,785 in the same period last year. Of this, 38,025,122 was in the form of donations, mainly from Wildlife Protection Systems (WPS), we cannot thank them enough for their amazing support, but we also had contributions from WildEye, WildEarth and online donations. Our actual Park entrance revenue stands at Ksh 25,455,513 – 14% of the amount collected last year.
We have managed to keep expenditure at 3% over budget Ksh 96,124,291 against Ksh 92,910,098. It should be noted that this is considerably lower than the expenditure incurred during the same period last year – then it stood at Ksh 130,659,780. The major variance comes in Administration and staff costs, including security expenses. However, we did manage to make savings vehicle and machinery costs – despite continual rain and damage to our roads.
Repairs and maintenance
We concentrated on the road to Little Governors from Sankuria and on making a new crossing over the Sabaringo Lugga near Little Governors. It was extremely frustrating, the lugga flooded twice as we worked on the crossing, causing extensive damage.
The heavy and sustained rains, followed by cold, overcast days resulted in extensive damage to the roads. It will take weeks to repair the damage.
We re-surfaced and then graded sections of the road from Sankuria to Little Governors before concentrating on the main road from Serena to Mara Bridge.
We replaced the axle on our trailer with a heavy duty one, this should stop the constant breakages to the hubs.
Collaboration agreement
· We deployed a mechanic at the workshop in Sekenani;
· We continued to maintain vehicles;
· We repaired the pipeline to the Musiara Gate;
· We installed a new culvert between Musiara and Double Crossing;
· Grade A have installed three culverts on the road from Talek to Sekenani under a separate contract .
Report on focus for February
Focus for February 2021
1. Hold Board meeting on the 5th
2. CE to take a week off from the 7th;
3. Rebuild causeway near the Kichwa airstrip;
4. Complete toilet and shower;
5. Work on river road to Mara Bridge and patch main road to Oloololo;
6. Work on Collaboration Agreement – funds permitting;
o Work on the road from Keekorok to Mara Bridge;
o Start work on the road from Talek to Sekenani;
o Rehabilitate housing at Musiara;
o Take more control over vehicles and their maintenance; and
o Install solar at Sand River.